How the product catalog works

What the shared and organization catalogs are, how products are identified, and what data completeness means for downstream workflows.

Updated October 29, 2026

Two catalogs in one view

When you open Library → Products, you see two catalogs merged into one view:

Shared catalog: products Tooling Metrics can publish once for every organization. Every organization sees them without any setup, and nobody can edit or delete them. If a product you import has the same Manufacturer and Product Number as a shared one, the shared product is used and your imported data for it isn’t saved.

Organization catalog: products your organization imports or creates, visible only to its members. Import your vendors’ GTC packages here, and create custom or in-house tools here too.

How products are identified

Every product is uniquely identified by two fields together: Manufacturer and Product Number. No two products within the same catalog can share both values. This means:

Importing a GTC package from Sandvik a second time updates existing Sandvik products rather than creating duplicates.
A product number in your organization catalog can also exist in the shared catalog: they are separate records.

What GTC and ISO 13399 are

Cutting tool vendors publish product data — dimensions, geometries, connection interfaces, technical drawings — but historically every vendor packaged it differently. ISO 13399 is the international standard that defines a common vocabulary for cutting tool data. The Generic Tool Catalog (GTC) format is a package structure built on ISO 13399 that vendors use to distribute their full product assortments.

When you import a GTC package, Tooling Metrics automatically extracts everything the vendor included: ISO 13399 parameters, 3D models, 2D drawings, connection codes, operations, and images. All of this data is available immediately for assembly building, machining calculations, and CAM export.

Vendor data completeness

Not all vendors provide the same level of data. This variation matters because missing data limits what you can do with a product downstream:

Vendor data	What Tooling Metrics can do
Full GTC package (parameters + models + drawings)	All workflows: assembly building, machining calculator, CAM export, setup sheet rendering
ISO 13399 `.p21` file only	Assembly building and machining calculator; no 3D visualization
3D models and drawings only	Visual assembly building; no parameter-driven calculations
No data (manual registration)	Inventory tracking and purchasing only

The practical implication: before selecting a vendor for a new process, check whether they provide a GTC package. Discovering that a product lacks parameters after you have built assemblies and designed operations around it creates rework.

Major vendors that ship full GTC packages without needing approval include Sandvik Coromant, Kennametal, WIDIA, Walter Tools, Garr Tool, CERATIZIT (with KOMET and WNT), and EMUGE-FRANKEN; see where each publishes them. For others, such as Seco Tools, ISO 13399 .p21 files may be available on request from the vendor’s sales team.

How operations affect downstream workflows

Operations define what machining types a product supports (drilling, shoulder milling, external turning, etc.). They are stored in the product’s .p21 data file and parsed automatically during import or sync. If no .p21 file is available, operations must be set manually.

Operations matter because:

Machining calculator filters cutting data by operation. A product without operations set cannot have cutting data calculated.
Cutting data entries are each tied to one operation type. Multiple entries on the same product cover different operations or different workpiece materials.
Setup sheets display the operation type for each tool assignment.

A product with no operations set is usually one that was created without a .p21 file, or whose file didn’t include operation data — see Create a product manually for how to fix it.